anterbury Tales What is the Canterbury Tales a

anterbury Tales

What is the Canterbury Tales? a. manuscripts and textual issues b. order of the tales c. anthology and/or single story d. tale-telling contest and/or pilgrimage

What is CT about? a. order and/or disorder (personal, social, cosmic b. determinism and/or free will c. gentility and pity e. transformation and/or conversion

How does CT mean? a. readers' expectations b. "allegorical" and/or "realistic" elements c. tale-teller relations d. impressionism, irony, and filling gaps

Where is Chaucer in the CT? EVERYWHERE!!!

Literary Structure Originally planned for 120 stories (2 stories each way on pilgrimage from London to Canterbury for 30 pilgrims), but only 22 completed, with 2 fragmentary tales. Chaucer left the manuscript(s) unfinished, so we don't know the final ordering of the tales, but: We know there are 10 "fragment" or groups of tales that retain the same order within the fragment.

We know that Fragment 1 (The General Prologue, the Knight's Tale, the Miller's Tale, the Reeve's Tale, and the Cook's Tale) begins and Fragment 10 (Parson's Tale and the Retraction) bound the others. We think that the two best early manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales represent early editors' attempts to put the tales into a "Chaucerian" order. We always need to keep this manuscript context in mind and to remember that all modern editions of the Canterbury Tales are, in a sense, "fictions" in themselves.

• Generic Complexity of the Canterbury Tales a. Romance (Knight's Tale) deals with human emotions and relationships. b. Fabliau (Miller's Tale) deals with the basic human needs of food, sex, or money. c. Saint's Life (Second Nun's Tale, Prioress's Tale) deals with the operations of God in a holy person's life. d. Moral Tales (Pardoner's Tale, Melibee) deal with orthodox morality. e. Sermons and Ethical Treatises (Parson's Tale) deal with spiritual matters.

The General Prologue Opening of the General Prologue Genre of the Prologue Class Structure

Opening of the General Prologue Contraries held in tension From the heavenly to the earthly theological to the biological/fleshly supernatural to the natural From winter to spring sickness to health death to life Pilgrimage as a contemporary practice and spiritual ideal

Genre of the Prologue Estates Satire: an analysis of society in terms of its hierarchy. Each class or profession is described to show it fails the ideal, implying a moral judgment. Traditional division of medieval society: begins at top of the social ladder and then moves downward through the social spectrum. Traditional three-fold division of medieval life & ideal figures in the General Prologue

Individuals, not groups described, but individuals are representatives of different recognizable groups Key Idea: the interplay of the social relations and individual identity in the tales and the Frame Tale 29 pilgrims (27 men, 1 woman, Host)

Class Structure First Strata: Aristocracy The Middle Strata: Middle Class and other Social Climbers Lower Class, ruffians, rascals, etc.